Jungian Analytical Play Therapy: A Deeper Understanding of Children’s Play

This two-day presentation will focus on the development of the psyche of children from a Jungian Analytical perspective:  Issues of ego development, consciousness, unconsciousness, the collective conscious, the collective unconscious, archetypes, the Ego-Self Axis, and complex formulation will be explained. Symptoms will then be examined within the context of the theory to illustrate how symptoms are empirical manifestations of complex material. A model for Play Therapy will be forwarded by the presenter to show how the process of assisting children to engage safely, symbolically, and archetypally with disturbing material can lead to transformation, both consciously and unconsciously. Play therapy will be highlighted as the only real form of therapy that can assist children in engaging difficult material safely, and the nature of that engagement will be analyzed. Two different videotaped cases will be shown with a systematic Jungian interpretation, detailed Jungian analysis, and using the Jungian Analytical Play Therapy session review form. The presentation will end with discussion from the participants to assist them in understanding how this process works.